Lien Sales

As it pertains to the lien sale process, the lien holder is the individual or company that is conducting the lien sale. They are the person or entity that needs to have a balance paid or a vehicle removed.

A lien sale is a DMV procedure that may be used by individuals, mechanics, body shops, junk yards or law enforcement to collect fees due for unpaid and overdo services, notify registered owners or interested parties or legal owners that there is a balance due, or that a vehicle has been abandoned or abated. In the case of a mechanic or body shop, It allows the lien holder to recover their costs, in the case of law enforcement or individuals, to notify interested parties that this vehicle needs to be removed or it will be sold and or destroyed.

• If you owe a repair shop/mechanic fees for services, and you do not pay, a lien sale will be triggered by them to recover their costs
• If you’ve abandoned a vehicle on a private property, and the individual wants it removed.
• If a vehicle has been deemed abandoned by law enforcement
• If a vehicle has been received by a junk yard.

• Abandoned/abated vehicles: Vehicles that are valued under $500 have lien sales that are conducted within 15 days. These are usually conducted by law enforcement or junk yards.
• Short liens or vehicles valued under $4000: this lien sale is for vehicles that are valued under $4000. They usually take 31 days or so to complete and the maximum allowable fee to charge is $70.
• Long liens or vehicles valued over $4000 or are in a storage facility: this lien sale is for high value vehicles or vehicles that are stored in a storage facility. For storage facilities, the lien sale will be a long lien by default. These lien sales usually go between 60 and 90 days. Also note, the lien sale in essence goes in 2 parts, and is very thorough.
• Vessel lien sales valued under $1500: this is a boats versions of a “short” lien. The only condition with this one is that you must come in with an appraisal from a vessel dealer confirming tha tit is under $1500 in value.
• Vessel lien sales valued over $1500: this is a boat’s version of a “long” line. The process for this is around 60 to 90 days and does NOT require an appraisal.

• Per the DMV manual, these are the maximum fees allowable to be charged:
  • Short lien: $70
  • Long lien: $100
• Note: these fees will vary – there are companies that conduct lien sales at a very high volume, and therefore offer a low rate for their service. In addition, there are other companies that charge their service fee, plus costs associated with the fee, such as postage, an ad that needed to be placed, or other costs that are needed to be paid to conduct the lien sale.

• People use the lien sale process to obtain ownership/title to a vehicle. Either they purchased the vehicle from someone that did NOT have the title or bill of sale or proper documentation, OR, they had the paperwork and now lost it. The lien sale process is NOT allowed in these scenarios. The DMV, as difficult as they can be, offers solutions to this scenario. Our office deals in title reconstructions/bonded titles – so if that is the case with you – contact us regarding that – and DO NOT process a lien sale.
• Home mechanics or body shops that are operating without the proper licensing for BAR cannot collect repairs in the lien sale. They are only allowed to charge storage fees.
• You cannot perform a lien sale on a unit that does not have a VIN – if you cannot locate a VIN it is advisable that you contact a VIN verification company to attempt to locate it. Ultimately, you cannot do a lien sale on a vehicle that does not have a VIN.
• Dealerships cannot perform lien sales for the purposes of obtaining a title, however, if the vehicle is in their possession due to repairs that were done, that does allow them to perform a lien sale on the vehicle.
• If a lien sale was conducted on your vehicle, but the lien sale never finalized, there may be a VLT stop on file. To remove it you must have a Vin verification done on your vehicle to confirm that you actually have possession of the vehicle.
• Per Chapter 18 of the DMV manual, the lien sale process does NOT “erase”, “void”, “waive” any back fees or penalties that were due on the vehicle.